SYDNEY -- Tropical paradise or basket case? The South Pacific has taken a good look at itself and decided it's a bit of both. And the bad bit, everyone agrees, must be cleaned up.
The South Pacific Forum, that loose-knit "talkfest" of developed and developing countries, has agreed to self-regulate a raft of reforms designed to defuse internal strife and external security threats. True, the agreements did sound remarkably like many earlier wish lists. This time, though, the small island-states recognize a cleanup must start now -- before fragile societies start crumbling.
The Nasanini Declaration -- named after a suburb in Suva where the regional heads of government met -- commits the 16 highly diverse member states to strategies that some may find too unpalatable, politically and economically, to implement without huge foreign support.